Description

The Duke of Savoy, son-in-law to the King of France spent most of the War of the Spanish Succession switching sides. In 1707 he had turned against France and decided to invade southern France in an effort to seize the naval port of Toulon. The French King, led astray by his courtiers, dithered, but the French generals in the south of France saved the day by acting aggressively and pushing hard to get to Toulon before the Piedmontese Army. Piedmont, supported by Austria and an English fleet, arrived too late. Toulon’s defenses had been repaired and occupied by the French Army. A siege began with several successful French sorties successfully thwarting the Allies’ efforts to take this critical city, which if it had fallen, would have kicked the French out of the Mediterranean.